date

27 June 1804 Procedure Evils
27 June 1804

Procedure

Evils causes

Ch.1 Generalia

'3. Remediable and irremediable

The obstacles opposed to justice by the purely physical causes of place and time can no more be annihilated than those opposed by the physical causes of death and mental derangement. But though in these cases any more than in the foregoing the inconveniences incident to judicial procedure can not be prevented and removed in toto, yet in these cases too in some instances the amount of the inconveniences may in a more or less considerable degree be reduced. In respect of the intercourse between man and man distance in point of /respect of/ time has for its most obvious and intractable cause, ---- in respect of place. But though distance between any two points in the earth's surface can not be lessened by any human ingenuity /industry/, yet in different situations /under different circumstances/, by the exertions of natural industry, more or less effectually seconded or not seconded obstructed or assisted by the exertions of the Legislator, the means of communication have been facilitated, communication rendered more speedy, and the ------ /force/ of obstacles opposed to justice by place and time together have /has/ in this way be reduced.

If under the auspices of English law, the better --- most happy institution which is of so much use to trade is as yet /has ----/ of so little use to justice, it is because, in England as else where, a m--- /man/ carries on trade for his own benefit, and administers justice, or what he calls justice for other people; it is because the profits of those traders who carry on the business of trade are encreased by everything that lessens the expence, and of those lawyers who carry on the business of justice, by many things that encrease the expence.
Similar Items
  • Title: [13 Apr. 1803 Procedure {or Evidence]
    Description: 13 Apr. 1803

    Procedure {or Evidence?}

    Evils [...?]

    Ends

    Engl. Law

     In a practical view (see below)

    But of this principal which in the catalogue of collateral objects has received more than it due share of attention - or rather if the sacrifices made to it at the expence of the real main objects have been - in many instances disproportionate, needless, useless and inconsiderate, the same imputation can not be extended /charge will not be found extendible /applicable// to the case of the other collateral objects - expence, vexation and delay.

    While, on the pretence /under the notion/ of providing for the security of the innocent, the guilty are let out without number, vexation is heaped upon suitors of all descriptions without mercy - expence without account - and delay - needless and useless - and unnecessary delay is manufactured by rule and compass, as if litigation - the bane of comfort - were the proper and principal business of life.H

    At this point, for the present, we take a pause. To carry on /deduce/ yet further the genealogy of law-born evil /mischief/ - to delineate it in its various shapes - to pursue it into its various recesses and lurking holes to trace out its ulterior and more distant causes, with their respective remedies, is a task, the place of which belongs to /which will find its place in/ the topic of Procedure.

    H References to Evidence Self-conviction &c - Nullities -

    Uses of this arrangement.

    1. A standard to try the goodness of a system of procedure by,

    2 - in one country as well as another.

    3. A model of perfection /A [...?] for improvement to aim at/

    4 It exhausts the subject /There are no other inconveniences/

    5. It exhibits /and/ the ne plus ultra of improvement /beyond which it can not go/

    /These inconveniences reduced to the minimum[?], perfection is attained/

    Practical instruction -

    To extirpate each lower branch of the inconvenience, not on its own account merely but on that of the higher that grow out of it: Intricacy[?] for precipitation & delay; those for vexation and expence; those for wrong decision in all its shapes.

    Each inconvenience furnishes a test for the whole system, and for each step. No test more simple, intelligible, familiar, conformable at once to the principle of utility, and to popular sentiment.
  • Title: [10 June 1804 Procedure (20]
    Description: 10 June 1804

    Procedure (20

    Ch. Basis

    ' Turkish

    The acknowledged defects of Turkish judicature have for more than half an age been the stronghold of the patrons of abuse /bad judicature/. There (they say) you have your judicature in the family /domestic/ state, and see what it is you get by it. The vexation, no expence, no delay, but the small matter /portion/ of [...?] that may happen to /is indispensable //[...?]// from enquiry, whichever may be the subject in the end/ be absolutely indispensable. No vexation expence and delay, or next to none: yet Turkish judicature is a proverb /proverbial/ for injustice.

    Causes, concomitant but influencing circumstances - Co-effects and obstacles - all have their connection /are connected in one way or another/ with the effect. Shallow /weak or hasty/ men actually take - wicked and deceitful men pretend to take - not only co-effect, and uninfluencing circumstances - but even obstacles for causes.

    The vexation, the expence the delay, even the dangers of "justice, are the price (says a French writer /says [...?]/) which each Citizen pays for his liberty." The observation in itself is true: and so true as in itself to be not worth making. But the conclusion which he designs /intends/ the reader should draw, and which but too many readers have been weak /hasty/ or wicked enough to draw - though he had not the face /courage/ to draw it himself - is - that these obstacles to good judicature are indispensable causes: [...?] quibus [...?] and that as according to the trite but uninstructive /familiar but more perplexing than instructive/ maxim effects are always proportioned to their causes - the greater the mass of vexation, expence and delay preceded your /any/ decision, the better the /your/ chance /security[?]/ it has of being conformable to direct justice. Examine (says he) the formalities of justice in respect of the trouble /hrams/ which it costs a citizen ti get /must be at/ his property restored to him, or to get satisfaction for any personal injury, you will doubtless find too many: regard the relation they [...?] to the liberty and security of individuals /citizens/, you will often find too few: and then comes the passage from whence you are to understand that the justice you buy is good, in proportion as the price you are made to pay for it is excessive.
  • Title: [24 Aug. 1801 C2 Polit. Economy]
    Description: 24 Aug. 1801

    C2

    Polit. Economy

    Method

    III Non Agenda.

    Encouragement

    72

    7

    11

    Note to last page

    It may however happen in some instances that a branch of industry which if

    pursued would be more profitable than any other requires a mass of capital of

    such magnitude, as individuals separately taken or in small numbers are not able

    to raise. But where this happens it can only be in consequence of some positive

    regulation of government, which in contemplation of the mischief apprehended

    from over grown masses of capital in certain cases forbids limits or endeavours

    /seeks/ to limit the quantity of capital that shall be applied under one

    management to any branch of industry, by limiting the number of individuals who

    shall be allowed to contribute to it, or by not suffering a man to embark in

    trade any part of his property without embarking the whole. In giving an

    encouragement of this sort /in this shape/, government does little or nothing

    more than remove discouragements /obstacles/ of its own creating, and the good

    it does if any is done at no expence.

    When by the assistance /exertions of/ government a mass of capital which

    otherwise would have gone into a branch of productive industry producing but 15

    per Cent is directed into a branch producing 16 per Cent, the profit by those

    exertions is not the 16 per Cent, but the difference between that and the 15 per

    Cent, viz: the one per cent. It is for the 16 per cent however and not the one

    percent that credit is commonly taken by those statesmen who go to market for

    glory with the merit of affording encouragement to trade: and if 10